# useless fact-athon!! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 5, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358 "2003-07-05T06:51:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/81 "2003-07-07T02:20:18Z")
Takeru Kobayashi has won the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest for three years in a row. He uses the ‘solomon method’ of snapping the hot dogs in half, and stuffing both halves in his mouth at once. Above-mentioned hot-dog-eating-contest has been held every year since 1916. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/82 "2003-07-07T03:36:08Z")
The Earth is not actually round, but an oblate spheroid: flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/83 "2003-07-07T03:45:35Z")
A teenage Andy Williams dubbed Lauren Becall’s singing voice in _To Have and Have Not_. ---
**Author:** ![BuckleberryFerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@BuckleberryFerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckleberryFerry)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/84 "2003-07-07T04:15:42Z")
Disney’s animated [_Peter Pan_](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0046183) (1953) was the first version to ever use a male as Peter. In this version of _Peter Pan_, the voice of Captain Hook and Mr. Darling were both voiced by [Hans Conried](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Conried,%20Hans). Tinkerbell was NOT modeled after Marylin Monroe, but Margaret Kerry. Kerry also voiced a mermaid in _Peter Pan_. Disney’s _Peter Pan_ does not use any of J.M. Barrie’s original dialogue. _Return to Neverland_ made use of an octopus, and they made sure to show the beak. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/85 "2003-07-07T04:16:02Z")
Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t all those rivets on the Eiffel Tower fake? It was my understanding that they are just for show and the whole thing is riveted together. ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/86 "2003-07-07T04:17:17Z")
Erm, I mean, welded together. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/87 "2003-07-07T04:46:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*Spam…the email kind…got it’s name from “The Spam Song” by Monty Python. \*\* Actually, some claim that it got its name from the fact that the e-mail is considered “unfit for human consumption,” much like many people see the luncheon meat, and that the Python connection was an afterthought. So who knows? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/88 "2003-07-07T07:08:22Z")
Perhaps not so useless, but… •"All prisoners had to wear markings to make clear the kind of “criminals” they were. Jews still wore the Star of David, whether on armbands or simply the yellow Star. The markings were most often in the form of a triangle, and it was the color which identified the inmate according to whatever camp hierarchy was in effect. - Political prisoners (Labor Party members, dissidents) wore a red triangle. - Communists and Socialists usually wore a black triangle. - Gypsies were also forced to wear the black triangle. - Jehovah’s Witnesses wore a purple triangle. - Homosexuals were required to wear a pink triangle, and it was from this that the homosexual populations of most countries today continue to use the pink triangle as a symbol of their sexual orientation. It, like the Star of David, now having become a badge of pride. - Emigrants who were imprisoned for whatever reason wore a blue triangle. - The green triangle was reserved for the common criminal: thieves, rapists, murderers, child abusers, etc." •"Parisian street gangsters are reported shaving their heads and dressing in metal-studded leather jackets. The press responded by called such people “apaches.” Originally, this name referred to a Belgian pepperbox revolver that had a blade under its barrel and a knuckle-duster in its butt, but after the American Indian leader Geronimo became a household word, the revolver was forgotten. Around 1890, the apache name also began to describe a sadomasochistic dance genre in which tattooed, scarred women fought knife or saber duels while stripped to their underclothes, or smiled while men slapped them around. " •The Statue of Liberty is 151 feet tall, not counting the base or pedestal. The [“Motherland”](http://www.worldroom.com/features/motherrussia/coverstory1.phtml) statue in Volgograd (Formerly Stalingrad) is 171 feet tall. •St. Swithin’s Day is on July 15. •In Ancient Indo-European, the word for Copper is “Tamba.” •The plot of the old Disney movie “The Black Hole” was originally set to take place around Christmas. •The order of Roman Gladiators known as “Andabates” wore helmets with no eyeholes…they fought blind. •After the American Civil War, the former confederate states were divided by the Union into “military districts” under martial law. These districts were: -Virginia -North Carolina and South Carolina -Georgia, Alabama, and Florida -Mississippi and Arkansas -Louisiana and Texas The minimum rank required for the military governor of each of these districts was Brigadier-General. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/89 "2003-07-07T07:18:48Z")
A win/loss record for the Andabates relative to other gladiatorial classes would make interesting reading, I think… ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/90 "2003-07-07T11:57:51Z")
The first spelled out number with an “a” in it is “thousand.” To get a “b,” you have to go to a “billion.” The longest word that can be typed only using one vowel but repeating it is “strenghthlessness.” The best panagram (sentence using all the letters only once)in the English language, because it makes sense and you don’t have to use a dictionary to understand it, is “MR JOCK, TV QUIZ PHD, BAGS FEW LYNX.” I once killed a thread on panagrams with that one. And it serves Jock right. Any intellectual who sells out to mass media deserves to have his markmanship suffer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358.md?page=4)